My London Labour colleagues and I are concerned that public health is being put at risk by an attempt to hide London’s air pollution. Recent estimates show that over 4,000 people die prematurely each year because of air pollution in London, and hundreds of thousands more suffer asthma and breathing difficulties.

Boris Johnson has recently spent large sums of public money converting road sweeping equipment to spray suppressants on roads immediately around key air pollution monitoring sites to reduce their pollution readings.

This localised action might artificially reduce the readings around the monitoring stations, but will do little to actually improve air quality for millions of Londoners who continue to breathe air that does not meet health-based legal standards.

Air pollution is London’s invisible health crisis and Boris Johnson has ignored the problem for too long. It is about time we had a Mayor who takes London’s air quality seriously.

We have written a letter to Caroline Spelman, Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, outlining our concerns.